The Chinese Coronavirus outbreak in Britain has been for many individuals and families a devastating thing. It’s also been devastating for the reputation of many UK police forces. The Covid19 outbreak and the new movement restrictions appear to have been taken as carte blanche by many UK police forces to bully and hassle the public when there is plainly no need to do so.
Even someone such as myself who has studied how Britain’s police forces have become more arrogant, capricious, dishonest and brutal over the years, have been shocked at just how shitty our police officers are behaving. The behavour of these officers, who are not just a few bad apples, but all too many it seems, appear to show that these officers have forgotten that they are merely civilians in uniform and should police by consent as per the Peelian Principles.
In just the relatively short time that the Covid19 movement and social distancing restrictions have been in operation we have seen police forces, hassle sunbathers who were nowhere near anybody else and using drones to harass dogwalkers who were also practicing social distancing,. Then there is South Yorkshire Police, a force deeply and shamefully involved in an Islamic Rape Gang scandal harass a person in Rotherham for being out in their front garden. We can add to that list the police forces who threatened an independent journalist for threatening to expose non compliance with social distancing guidance by some Islamic groups and the police who kicked down a person’s door in order to harass and threaten the occupant after they received a dubious and maybe false complaint of a disturbance. These are just a few of the stories of how British police have failed the public and behaved like something that an East German might have recognised with a shudder.
Now we have a journalist Mike Segalov, who works as a freelance News reporter, being threatened by police and being treated in an appalling and boorish manner by a cop who obviously enjoys being a bullying arrogant scumbag. There was no need for this officer in the video below to behave in the manner that he did. News gatherers, especially those from mainstream media outlets or who have a National Union of Journalists card, are considered as key workers and therefore should be able to carry out their work without being treated like this.
Below is a video, grabbed from the Twitter account of Simon Childs, an editor at Vice, which was allegedly filmed last week showing Mike Segalov being confronted by arrogant bullying cops as he tried to film an incident, apparently in London, that occurred in a public place. Being a public place there were no legal restrictions on him filming but that did not stop the police officers from screaming into Mr Segalov’s face, covering him in spittle in the process, that Mr Segalov was ‘killing people’ by his presence.
I’m disgusted at the way that Mr Segolov has been treated by these officers. I do hope that he, possibly with the backing of his Trade Union and his clients, push for an apology from the Metropolitan Police for the way that they’ve treated him.
It would be wise and prudent for the Met to apologise to Mr Segolov for this behavour and apologies and maybe some compensation, should also go to all those who have been targetted by overzealous, arrogant and bullying police officers by all those police forces where this bad behaiour has occurred. It would be in these police forces interest to apologise to those they have wronged as the reputation of Britain’s police forces among the public sit on a knife edge at the moment. Making amends by these forces would help to salvage what little remains of their tattered reputation.
Britain’s police forces already have a bad name among many in the public for many reasons. It is because police forces failure to control or investigate real crime such as burglary, policing in an inequitable manner different communities, an over abundance of waste, a lack of accountability to the public, general bad behavour and much much more. Remember Mr Segalov is a man who describes himself as a ‘Jewish, left wing, Labour Party member’ and therefore very unlike those who regularly see the police’s bad side. If he can be treated in such an appalling manner by officers such as these, then you can be damned well certain that these arrogant and disgraceful officers will be coming for you next.
The Covid19 emergency has in some cases brought out the best in British people who’ve stepped up to the plate to help out during the current problems. The emergency has also brought out some of the worst of Britain and unfortunately so much of that ‘worst’ seem to be wearing police uniforms. As I said earlier in this piece, the reputations of Britain’s police forces were already very low and I fail to see how the conduct of police officers during this emergency can do anything but finally flush our police’s reputation right down the toilet.
